Florida Senior Games 2011

The first Florida Senior Games championships were held in 1992.  These games are for people age 50 and above.  Currently, the Florida Sports Foundation sanctions local games, which serve as qualifiers for the state championships.  The Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation, and Conservation Department will be hosting the Tampa Bay local qualifier games this year from October 3rd-14th.  The locations of the events, registration form, and rule book can be found here.  The sports offered include: 

• 3-on-3 Basketball
• Basketball 
• Shooting, Billiards
• Bowling
• Golf
• Horseshoes
• Pickleball
• Powerlifting
• Race Walk
• Swimming
• Table Tennis
• Tennis
• Track and Field

The State Championships will be held Dec. 3rd -11th in various locations in Polk County. These state championships are the qualifiers for the 2013 National Senior Games in Cleveland, Ohio from July 21st - August 6th, 2013. For more information on the National Senior Games Association, please click here.

How to Find Reliable Health Information Online

There are thousands of websites that provide health information online.  A lot of these sites are just trying to sell health products to you and they may not provide correct information.  You can start to evaluate a website by looking at who sponsors it. If the web site is a ".gov" (government website) or a ".edu" (college or university web site), the information will be more reliable and unbiased than a ".com" (commercial web site). You can find out more information to help you evaluate health websites on the National Institute on Aging website: "Online Health Information: Can You Trust It?".
               
     Here are some excellent health websites:

• NIH Senior Health - good basic information on many health topics; very user-friendly; also includes videos on topics such as Macular Degeneration.
• MedlinePlus Senior's Health (from the U.S. National Library of Medicine) - good directory of Senior health resources.
• MedlinePlus - search by health topic or search drugs and supplements- brings together information from many sources – such as the Mayo Clinic, the CDC, and the American Medical Association.
• NIDCD - information about dealing with deafness.
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute- Managing Heart Disease

Looking for a health provider? Here is a list of directories:

• Healthfinder - find a dentist, a doctor, hospital, hospice care, etc.
• Florida Health Finder - find and compare hospitals, prescription drug prices, nursing homes, etc.

Want to compare Medicare providers? Medicare.gov has the following tools:

• Physician Compare
• Hospital Compare
• Nursing Home Compare
• Home Health Compare
• Dialysis Facility Compare

Free Memory Screenings in September

If you’re age 50 or older and feeling forgetful, there’s probably no reason to worry.  However, you can put your mind at ease by making an appointment for a free, 20-minute memory screening.  HPH Hospice and the Alzheimer's Association are sponsoring memory screenings this month for people age 50 and older in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Mobile bus. Space is limited, so you will need to register for an appointment. To register, call Jan Double at 727-705-0107.  This bus will be parked at two locations in Pasco County:

 In West Pasco:

On Monday and Tuesday -  September 19th & 20th

10:00am to 4:00pm

HPH Hospice SP Team Office  
6807 Rowan Road
New Port Richey, FL

In East Pasco:

On Thursday and Friday - September 29th & 30th

10:00am to 4:00pm

HPH Hospice East Pasco Team Office 
37445 Clinton Avenue
Dade City, FL

Note: Screenings are not intended for individuals who have been diagnosed with Dementia.

For more information, click here for the HPH Hospice homepage.

Florida Memory Project

The Division of Library and Information Services of the Florida Department of State has expanded their online Florida Memory website. This website originally hosted only photographs and scanned documents from Florida history (see previous blog post).  Now this archive has expanded to include historical Florida videos, music, and folklore interviews.  Here are two pictures from this online archive:

                                  Engine 507 and crew 

        Dottie Schroeder of the All-American Girls 
                    Professional Baseball  League

                Here are two video excepts:




The full version of the 1917 inauguration for Sidney J. Catts can be seen here.



The full version of this video about the Everglades can be found here.

You can explore the complete Florida Memory Project here.